[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 153 (Thursday, November 17, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H10517-H10518]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          FURTHER CONTINUING APPROPRIATIONS, FISCAL YEAR 2006

  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 
558, I call up the joint resolution (H.J. Res. 72) making further 
continuing appropriations for the fiscal year 2006, and for other 
purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.
  The Clerk read the title of the joint resolution.
  The text of the joint resolution is as follows:

                              H.J. Res. 72

       Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
     United States of America in Congress assembled, That Public 
     Law 109-77 is amended by striking the date specified in 
     section 106(3) and inserting the following: ``December 17, 
     2005''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to House Resolution 558, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis) and the gentleman from Wisconsin 
(Mr. Obey) each will control 30 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from California (Mr. Lewis).
  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I 
may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I do not intend to consume much time at all. This is a 
continuing resolution that simply includes a change of date extending 
our work through December 17 in order to give the President and others 
enough time to review these conference reports and other pieces of 
legislation being sent to the administration in rapid fire.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. OBEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 10 minutes.
  Mr. Speaker, I will not take very long on this bill either, but I do 
think it is important to take note of a few facts.
  At the beginning of this year, it was made quite clear by the 
majority that they desired to finish all appropriations bills on time 
and that there be no omnibus appropriations bill lumping all kinds of 
disassociated items into the same package.
  We on the minority side of the aisle have provided procedural 
cooperation at virtually every step of the way. We have provided time 
limits on debate on virtually every bill that we were asked to provide 
them. Those time limits were sometimes stringent and they met with 
objection from a number of Members. We provided unanimous consent so 
that the scheduling of legislation could be accelerated on numerous 
occasions. And despite that fact, today some 6 weeks into the fiscal 
year, we have four bills which are still not finished. Those bills are 
the Treasury, Transportation, HUD bill, the military quality of life 
bill, the Labor, Health, Education and Social Services bill, and the 
defense appropriations bill. Together, those four bills, which we have 
yet to complete, represent 78 percent of appropriated financing for the 
coming year.
  Why are we still not finished? It is certainly not because of any 
failure on the part of the Appropriations Committee. The Appropriations 
Committee kept to its schedule and every bill was passed earlier than 
almost any year that I can recall. And yet we are here with so much 
unfinished business on the appropriations side of the ledger.
  The reason I think is very clear. Despite the fact that the White 
House, the Senate and the House are all under control of the majority 
party, despite that fact we have reached this delay and are forced once 
again to seek another continuing resolution.
  The reason that has occurred, in my view, is because the budget 
resolution was so skewed in favor of the ideological right within the 
majority party caucus that in the end, even a number of Republican 
moderates have not wanted to vote for some of these bills, most 
especially in the Senate. And we find that even Republican committee 
chairmen, like Senator Specter, have described one of the bills as 
being totally inadequate to its responsibilities.
  This country is in the middle of fighting a war. That war has a huge 
cost, and yet the Republican majority is in pursuit of its goal of 
providing huge tax cuts, a huge percentage of which will be put into 
the pockets of the most wealthy people in this country. Their desire to 
do that has led them to a willingness to borrow whatever it takes in 
order to put the money in those pockets and then use the resulting 
deficit as a reason to cut back on a number of other bills.
  They use it as a reason to make significant cuts in education, in 
health, in science, environmental protection and the rest, and then 
pretend that the cost of Katrina is what made them do it, when, in 
fact, the cost of tax cuts for persons in the top 1 percent of income 
in this country over the next decade will cost about 10 times as much 
as the cost of Katrina.
  So then we are forced because of the squeeze, we are forced to endure 
delays, and we have to bring forward a continuing resolution such as we 
are doing today. And I would point out that after we have gone through 
all of this effort, we, in the end, are probably still going to be 
stuck with an omnibus appropriations bill at the end, despite the fact 
that the majority party indicated they were going to move heaven and 
Earth in order to avoid such an eventuality.
  The game plan apparently is to try to pass three appropriations bills 
yet this week, and then that will leave us in December with the defense 
appropriations bill, and evidently the intention at this point is to 
attach everything but the kitchen sink to that bill so that we will, in 
effect, have a recreated omnibus.
  It is my understanding that the people expect to attach the bird flu 
appropriations, the appropriations for Katrina supplemental, and every 
other special deal that somebody can conjure up and attach it to the 
defense bill, and then hide it behind the skirts of military spending.
  The betting is that Members will want to support funding for the 
troops and so they will vote for whatever other garbage is attached to 
that bill by way of nongermane items. That, I think, would be a 
dysfunctional result, but that appears to be where we are headed. It 
could be avoided if the majority had chosen to be a little less 
ideological, if they had chosen to pull the rubber band just a little 
less tightly, and if they had chosen to cross the aisle and work in a 
bipartisan fashion on taxes, on spending, and on other items that 
affect the shape and nature of the budget. We have not seen that, and 
so that is why we are here today with the necessity to pass a 
continuing resolution.
  I will vote for the continuing resolution at this point because we 
need to keep the government open, but I am certainly not very pleased 
with how we have gotten here.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my 
time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. All time for debate has expired.
  The joint resolution is considered read for amendment and pursuant to 
House Resolution 558, the previous question is ordered.
  The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the joint 
resolution.
  The joint resolution was ordered to be engrossed and read a third 
time, and was read the third time.

[[Page H10518]]

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the passage of the joint 
resolution.
  The question was taken; and the Speaker pro tempore announced that 
the ayes appeared to have it.
  Mr. LEWIS of California. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and 
nays.
  The yeas and nays were ordered.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further 
proceedings on this question will be postponed.

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